Firing was still going on all around, but the shouts of our men rose now from inside the fort instead of outside.

And what shouting it was! The enemy's guns ceased as if by magic, and the distant sounds of firing showed plainly enough that the main body, now that we had silenced the fort, was resuming its march on Lucknow.
All this flashed through me as my senses gradually returned, and before even I had time to contemplate my own condition.

What a wreck I was! A helpless cripple past all healing, of no use to any one, and utterly incapable of resuming the ordinary duties of life.

But almost before I could realise this, another care flashed through my mind and drove out every other.
My master! What of him?
There he lay, motionless and pale, with his blue eyes closed, and a little stream of blood trickling down his chest.
Could he be dead?
Anxiously I listened if his heart still beat.

At first all seemed silent as death.